Little Things
by maybeweare
Summary: What David thinks is a criminal case turns out to be nothing more than a series of anonymous good deeds, but he and Henry aren't sure what to make of their discovery that Regina is behind this. When they confront her, they are surprised to find out that her motives are not at all what they expected. Prompt from JFJD.


**Requested by JFJD, who was the 100th commenter on Safe Haven.**

**For purposes of this story, the Ava- and Nicholas-related events of "True North" never happened. Nobody realized that anything was off in their situation until the events Regina talks about here. Back in the Enchanted Forest, Regina killed the Woodcutter in her rage when H & G rejected her, so there is no Michael Tillman.**

**Takes place while Emma and Snow are off fighting ogres and such.**

* * *

"Ready to go, Gramps?"

David looked up to see Henry swiveling in the Deputy's chair, apparently done with or bored with his homework. "Just give me a minute."

Henry pushed over towards David's desk, brow furrowing as he looked at the scattered papers. "Big case?"

"Little ones, actually. Someone reported strange magical activity going on in the park last night but when I checked it out it looked better than it used to. All the weeds were gone, and that wasps' nest under the slide and everything." David sorted through the papers. "Someone broke into Gold's shop a few days ago and stole a lot of things, but nothing valuable. And almost all of them have turned up again in the homes of the people who owned them back in the Enchanted Forest."

"Maybe it's Robin Hood," Henry said, excited at the prospect. That had always been one of his favorite stories. He was quite familiar with causing good through mischief.

"He's not in the census we took." David pulled the long list from a file and passed it over to his grandson, who he was sure would want to verify that for himself. "Anyway, today things just got stranger."

"What happened?" Henry asked while scanning through the list.

"Mr. Gold came by with this." David held up the evidence bag with a check in it. "Someone wrote him a check for the exact amount of all the things that were stolen. There are no fingerprints on it besides Gold's, so I looked into the account. Whoever this is has been writing a lot of checks to places all over Storybrooke, making huge donations. I tried contacting the bank in Boston, but since this isn't a big criminal investigation they wouldn't give me anything."

Henry set down the census, satisfied that Robin Hood was not a citizen of Storybrooke. He took one look at the check and gave David a look suggesting the answer was obvious. "That's my mom's handwriting."

David turned the check around to see it again. "Really? Are you sure?"

Henry grabbed his backpack and ruffled through the papers cluttering the bottom, finally finding one of the notes Regina had always tucked into his lunch. He liked staying with David, but he'd kind of come to miss the embarrassing notes. And having a more interesting option than peanut butter and jelly, which seemed to be about the extent of David's culinary skills.

David pulled out another evidence bag for the note and let Henry slip it inside before putting the two papers side by side. The handwriting was identical to the lettering on the check. It didn't find him long to find an official memo from the former Mayor, seeing as Emma seemed to shove all things relating to the Mayor's office in her bottom drawer so she didn't have to see them. Sure enough, the signature at the bottom matched that on the check. David wondered how he hadn't seen it before: the prim R, the swoop of the G, the staccato M and Ls. "Nice work, Deputy," he said, beaming proudly at Henry, but the boy still looked puzzled.

"I just don't get it. Why would she be doing these things?" Henry couldn't lift his eyes from his mother's note as he added, "She's the Evil Queen."

"I don't know." David got up and grabbed his keys, leading Henry out. "I'm going to look into it."

"_We're_ going to look into it," Henry corrected. "You'd still be scratching your head back there if it wasn't for me."

David slid into the front seat of the police cruiser and glanced over his shoulder at his grandson. "You sound just like your mother," he said, smiling at the little bit of sarcasm in Henry's tone.

"Which one?"

David started the car, realizing that he had no idea. "Both of them, I guess," he said, and he could see Henry's smile in the rearview mirror.

Regina's car wasn't in her driveway, and now that she didn't have an office they weren't sure where to look. David drove wide loops through Storybrooke, turning sharply when Henry called out that he saw the car. It was parked at the end of a residential street in front of a house that looked deserted save for the lights from inside. The lawn was overgrown, and the house in disrepair.

"Why don't you wait here?"

Henry rolled his eyes at David. "I never do that when my mom or Emma tell me to," he said, and David sighed.

"All right, Deputy Mills. Let's go. But you do _not_ get a weapon." David got out, Henry right behind him. They walked slowly up the cracked driveway and around the back of the house, where a large bay window provided a view of the three figures in the kitchen.

Regina was pulling items out of the grocery bags on the counter, passing them to the curly-haired girl and her younger brother. The children looked about as happy as Henry had ever seen them. "Hey, that's _my_ Batman shirt," he complained when he took a good look at what the boy was wearing.

"Who are they?" David could see the hint of jealousy on Henry's face, jealousy that went deeper than just a shirt. He really wished he'd been able to convince him to stay in the car. He had no idea what exactly they were walking into.

"Nicholas and Ava," Henry said simply. "Hansel and Gretel."

They watched quietly while the kids finished with the groceries and Regina neatly folded all the paper bags. She reached into her purse and pulled something out which she handed to the boy. The children looked at it for only a moment before hugging her tightly, Regina looking completely surprised.

Henry squinted. He would have brought binoculars if he'd known he was going to be fighting crime. "I think that's the compass," he said of the object that Nicholas was passing to Ava. "They had one in the book. It belonged to their father."

"Their father?" David couldn't help wondering if this was some sort of secret family of Regina's, but that made no sense. There was no reason to hide children or a husband if she had them, not during the days of the curse.

"The Woodcutter." Henry looked seriously up at David. "The Queen wanted Hansel and Gretel to be her children, but they refused. She sent them out into the forest to wander forever, and she killed their father."

There it was, the dark reason for Regina's presence here. David frowned, and as Regina began to make her goodbyes he led his grandson back to the front of the house.

A minute later, Regina stepped out the door, reminding Ava to lock it behind her before making her way down the path towards her car. When she turned to look where she was going, she stopped short, surprised to see Henry and David waiting for her. For once, she seemed speechless. "What are you doing here?" she finally managed to ask, approaching them cautiously.

"Looking for you," David replied. "There have been strange things happening in Storybrooke."

Regina sighed. "Need I remind you that I am no longer in charge of this town? Or that you, for some reason I can't fathom, _are_ in charge of this town?"

"You're a suspect," Henry piped up, and Regina looked at him as if she'd been slapped in the face.

"You shouldn't be dragging my son around on official police business," Regina scolded, but the bite had gone out of her voice.

"Why don't we go back to your house and talk?" David suggested. He could see Ava and Nicholas peering out the window. "You drive, I'll follow."

Regina rolled her eyes. "Fine." She headed to her Mercedes, glancing back as if wondering whether Henry would ride with her. He climbed into the cruiser instead, and she got into her car alone and led the way back to her mansion.

All three were uneasy as they stepped into the foyer, remembering the last time they'd stood here like this when Regina had sent Henry with David in the first place. "Henry," David said after a moment, "why don't you go upstairs and check on your room while I talk to Regina?"

Henry wanted to protest, but thoughts of the video games he hadn't seen in weeks were enough to persuade him to go. Even so, Regina was well aware of his habit of hiding on the stairs to overhear adult conversations, so she brought David to her study and closed the door. "I don't know what all of this is about," she said, taking a seat and gesturing for David to do the same. "But Henry's angry with me enough as it is. You shouldn't have involved him."

David sat across from her, leaning forward. "I didn't want to, but when Henry gets it into his head that he wants to do something…"

"Fair." Regina couldn't help a small smile at that, but it faded seconds later. "What do you think I've done this time?"

"What were you doing with those kids?" David asked, trying to keep accusation out of his voice and failing.

"I visit them twice a week to make sure they have enough to eat," Regina responded. "They're orphans thanks to my past actions. I didn't realize they were going to be alone here, too. I can't split them up, not after everything they've been through, so I didn't want to risk reporting them to Child Protective Services."

"Why didn't you just adopt them?"

"You make it sound so easy." Regina sighed. "I wanted to when we were back in the Enchanted Forest, and they refused me. If I'd found them in the first few years in Storybrooke, I'm sure I would have made them my own, but I didn't see them until a few months ago. I decided to respect their wishes. I can't force children to love me." She glanced up at the ceiling, so grateful to have Henry near again even though she knew it was only temporary. "Obviously."

David was quiet for a moment. He'd expected the worst from the former Queen, and was startled to find her so giving. Selfless, even. "You broke into the pawnshop," he said, trying to stay on track with the investigation.

"I did," Regina conceded. "Gold had many things that I took from their owners long ago. I just wanted to put things right. And while Gold deserves nothing, I didn't want to risk the recipients getting into trouble, so I paid for everything I took."

"You've been paying for a lot," David pointed out. "Donations to the school, the hospital, the animal shelter, and the library, and that's only what I've been able to uncover today."

Regina laughed, startling both David and herself. "Quality investigating by the Storybrooke Sheriff's office? I'm astounded."

The laughter and the joke suddenly broke the tension that had existed between the two since the breaking of the curse. "I have to give Henry most of the credit. He was my handwriting analyst." They shared a smile, a genuine smile. "Regina, why are you doing all of these things anonymously? If people knew, maybe they'd change what they think about you."

"Because this isn't about me." Regina's expression had gone serious again, but David could still see a bit of that smile in her eyes. "I know it's hard to believe, but I care about this town. It's Henry's home, and it feels like my home, too. Everyone made it quite clear that they didn't want my help when they ran me out of office, but I've spent 28 years taking care of Storybrooke and I'm not going to stop just because I'm not mayor. Everything is such a mess right now, mostly thanks to me, and I can't just sit back and watch the town fall apart. I had to do something."

"Maybe we didn't want your help at first," David pointed out, "but if people knew that you've already done all these wonderful things…"

Regina shook her head. "They aren't wonderful things. They're little things. After all the damage I've done throughout my life, they're the least I can do. I know the things I've done are unforgivable. Do you know how guilty I feel when Nicholas and Ava hug me? Buying them groceries will never change the fact that I was reckless with their lives, or that I killed their father. I don't deserve forgiveness, so I've stopped letting myself want it."

"You still want Henry's forgiveness," David said quietly, and Regina bowed her head to hide the tears rising in her eyes. "You should tell him everything you just told me."

The door to the study opened and a sheepish Henry poked his head in. "I kind of heard it all."

"Of course you did," Regina said, smiling even as her tears slipped out. Henry ran across the room to hug her, and she pressed him as closely to her as she could, the embrace so precious after all this time apart.

"I don't think I forgive you," Henry said honestly. "But I'm really proud of you, Mom. And I love you."

Regina looked up at David, her expression entirely unreadable as her sadness mingled with her gratitude. "Henry, what would you say about spending the night here?" David asked. "I've got to wrap up this case. Lots of boring paperwork."

Henry twisted just far enough away that he could look at David and then an astonished Regina. "I'd like that."


End file.
